


Personal Achievement

by flightinflame



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Academia, Bruce Feels, Gen, Movie Night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 19:04:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightinflame/pseuds/flightinflame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce gets a letter informing him that one of his papers has been published.  He is happy, but he sees no reason to bother the rest of the team with it.  They have other opinions about this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Personal Achievement

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShadowHaloedAngel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowHaloedAngel/gifts).



> For Shadowhaloedangel who has been reading academic papers all weekend, and needs an excuse to smile.

JARVIS informed Bruce of his letter in a quiet voice when he was taking a break from research in the lab. There was something slightly odd in the way he said it - if the Doctor hadn't known better, he would have said that he thought JARVIS was excited. 

Bruce headed down to reception to collect the envelope, examining it nervously. It was from Biology Review. Bruce felt a little nervous about opening it. He took the envelope, and headed back to his room. By the time that he got there, his hands were shaking slightly.

He sat down in his favourite comfy chair, and opened the envelope. He frantically scanned through the letter until he found the very words that he was looking for. "Honoured to accept your paper The Spread and Elimination of Filariasis within the slums of Calcutta for publication in the April 2014 issue of Biology review".

Bruce read over it several times before he was certain that he'd understood it, and then carefully put the paper down to one side. He lay back on the bed, letting out a relieved sigh. This meant so much to him. 

It wasn't the first paper he had had published. That had been back when he was twenty four, examining the effects of the Super Soldier Serum and the hope that it could help cure several diseases that lead to degeneration of the mind and body, in particular Bovine Spongiform Encephaly and Adrenoleukodystrophy. But this was the first paper he had published since the incident, and the first that he had ever managed to publish that had its basis in something other than the Serum.

Bruce smiled a little to himself, feeling a warm glow of pride spreading within his chest. He had worked hard for this, and right now, he was getting acknowledgement for who he was. Not the Hulk, nothing to do with the creature inside of him. Instead, this was for him and his own work. 

He closed his eyes, wondering for a moment whether his parents would see the paper. Not the woman who had given birth to him who was now dead, or the monster that had killed her, but the couple who had adopted him from a children's home and helped him to reach his potential – the ones that he had called mom and dad. They had supported him through his first paper after all, and had been so proud. But after his transformation he had decided to cut them from his life for their own good. He was being hounded by the army, and he didn't want them to get hurt because of him. It was easier to just say goodbye. But he hoped they might see it, that they might know he was still working, still trying to do well and help people rather than simply destroying parts of New York.

After a few minutes of quiet reflection, he carefully tucked the letter back into the envelope, and put it on his bedside cabinet, and then headed out to sort out dinner for the entire team. He'd let them know in time, but he didn't want to bother them with it. Anyway, Tony would demand to see the article, so he felt it was probably best for him to wait until it was in print and he could press the magazine into their hands.

Dinner that night was loud and enthusiastic and Bruce couldn't stop smiling throughout. He was still proud of what he had achieved, excited about it, but there were other things to think about. Steve had found a new online game for his phone that he wanted to show everyone, Thor and Jane were together for once and both enthusiastic to see each other, and Clint and Tony had developed new arrows, one of which ended up piercing through the vegetable pie when he placed it in the centre of the table.

Bruce wondered how anyone could ever question his self-control when he managed to cope with fishing weaponry out of his cooking most evenings. He laughed with the rest of the team, and headed to bed at the end of the evening, reading the letter over once more before he closed his eyes.

The first thing that Bruce was aware of the next morning was being seized from his bed, and pulled into strong arms. He opened his eyes in confusion, blinking blurrily to find Thor beaming down at him with great joy.  
"Whuh?" He asked eloquently.  
"My lady tells me that you have managed to get some research of your own to a standard high enough to be published... that it is a great achievement, and something that you should be proud of, a great honour." He grinned at him. "And so we shall celebrate it. We must congratulate you."  
"Thor..." Jane spoke quietly from where she was standing over to the side. "Put the poor guy down..."  
Thor released him, and Bruce sat back down on the bed, trying to work out where he was and what was happening.

"Well done Bruce." Jane said softly, squeezing his hand. "I'm looking forwards to reading it. Sorry about Thor, he just... he was happy when I managed to get a paper published, and finding that you were having one as well... we couldn't let it just pass by."  
"Thank you?" Bruce asked, still a little disorientated by what had happened. He smiled up at them. "I really appreciate it."  
"You should have told us!" Jane told him, punching him playfully on the arm.  
"I was going to..." Bruce murmured. "Just there were lots of other things going on, and I didn't want to get in the way or bother anyone..."  
"You are a fool Doctor Banner if you think that it should in any way bother us. We care for you and we wish to know when you have done well, in the same way that you show such kindness to us..." Thor proclaimed in the way that only he could, and Bruce smiled shyly, properly chastened.

"I'll tell the rest later." He promised. "Just... when we're all together, for lunch or dinner or whatever. But there's no point pulling everyone in here for no reason."  
Jane looked at him with mild disapproval, but didn't say anything more, and Thor seemed satisfied by that answer. Bruce hesitated, then fished out the letter to show Jane. She read it, then threw herself around his shoulders, holding him tightly. Bruce just smiled and rubbed her back fondly.

"We should get breakfast together to celebrate." Jane demanded, squeezing Bruce's hand and helping him get to his feet. "Thor has been working hard at learning to cook breakfast, so I think we should let him try."

Feeling a little apprehensive, Bruce agreed, and the astrophysicist and the god left. He got out of bed, dressing quickly before he followed them back down to the kitchen, smiling slightly when he saw that Thor was stood at the stove wearing a frilly pink apron and opening a pack of vegetarian sausages. 

Bruce sat down at the table opposite Jane, smiling at her, and enjoying the fact he wasn't the one having to cook for once. He was almost relaxed when he heard footsteps behind him.  
"You were trying not to tell me were you doctor? You can't really have thought I would have let you get away with that." Tony complained. "You should know I have Jarvis set up to inform me of anything like that... a paper! And on all that work you've done, you should have told us. I'm disappointed you didn't say, and you didn't show me the article in the journal yet." 

"It's not been printed!" Bruce attempted to protest, but Tony shook his head.   
"Well that's no excuse!" Tony answered, tutting in irritation. “You should show me now.”  
“I can’t.”  
“Find a way.” Tony demanded, pouting a little. “I want to see it.”

“What do you want to see?” Clint asked as he emerged from the direction of the gym, leaning in to grab a sausage out of the frying pan, only to be swatted away by Thor with the spatula. “Because if you’re busy perving on my brother again, I'm not going to let that happen."

Bruce couldn't help smiling wider at that. It was great to see his family relaxed together, even if Tony was demanding the impossible and Clint was nearly giving himself serious burn injuries.  
"I got a paper published. It's ... It's a big deal for me. Because it means that they respect my work. I'm being acknowledged for who I am, not for Hulk but for me. That... that was amazing."  
"Show me it?" Clint pleaded. Unlike for Tony, everyone knew that there was absolutely no chance that Clint would understand what was being said, but he was still willing to read it.  
"It's not been printed yet. Soon as it is though, I'll show you."

"I'll read it as well, if I can." Natasha said, from where she was sat at the table. Bruce only just managed to resist the urge to jump, as he hadn't seen her enter the room and had absolutely no idea that she was there, or indeed what he should make of that. Natasha was remarkably good at sneaking into places without him noticing, and even after months of living with her, he still wasn't quite used to it.  
"Of course. Just... if everyone can wait until it's printed, that would be great."  
"Sure thing." Clint answered with a grin, and Steve wandered in, hair damp from the shower. He walked over to Tony, and kissed him softly, before looking around at the assembled group, trying to work out what was going on.

"You all look happy today." He said, more to himself than to anyone else.  
"Bruce is getting a paper printed." Tony explained. "It's on some research he was doing about parasitic worms."  
"Ew."  
"It'll save a lot of lives." Jane joined in. "And his research is really impressive. I think it's going to really help a huge amount of people."  
"Oh..." Steve frowned a little, clearly still slightly uncomfortable at the thought of parasitic worms. He smiled at Bruce though. "That's really good..." His eyes were slightly clouded, and he was looking a little ill.

Bruce frowned, deciding not to press Steve for information - he knew that the food Steve had had as a child had probably not been always well prepared, and he squeezed his hand.   
"I think I've found a simple way of greatly bringing down the number of them in the slums in India, and if it works, it might help reduce other diseases as well."  
"That really is good." Steve agreed, smiling slightly at him as he relaxed. "But then, I always knew you were a remarkable man Bruce, and a fantastic scientist."  
"Not to mention the only doctor I'll ever trust!" Clint added to the conversation. Steve paused, looking around and doing a quick headcount.  
"Where's Phil?"

"He got called into work." Clint answered, and Steve nodded. Thor, Tony, Clint, Natasha, Bruce, Jane and himself were all there.   
"We should get some pizza or something for lunch to celebrate. Once you've eaten breakfast. And we can watch films or play games, I think that we all deserve a chance to relax, Bruce especially.”

"I'd like that." Bruce agreed, before darting up to his room, and returning with the letter. He let everyone take a look, feeling like he was glowing with pride as they all praised him. He was normally quiet about this kind of thing, but he had support from his friends and he had worked hard to get there.

The whole team retired into their living room, cuddling up together and talking softly. Bruce got to choose the film, so he went for Flubber, curling up on the sofa with the others and letting Clint sort out the popcorn. As always, Clint came back with several bowls worth of food, which he handed out with a grin. Tony was just happy with the adorable robot in it.

Bruce settled back on the sofa and relaxed. This was pretty much perfect. He had the group of people that he saw as a family were surrounding him, and they felt safe. It was like having a home, and it was only the second time in his life he had had one of those.

"Team popcorn party?" Coulson asked, appearing in the doorway and telling JARVIS to pause the film for a moment. Clint pouted, and threw a handful of popcorn at him, which clattered off of Coulson's chest. Coulson looked at him with the same mild disapproval that he so often reserved for Clint.

"I need to borrow Bruce for a moment."  
"We're having time together." Clint protested.  
"This is important." Phil said, and with such determination that Clint fell quiet. 

Bruce got to his feet, following Phil, and hoping that he hadn't done the wrong thing by sending the article off. He knew he was his own man, but he still worried occasionally about getting the wrong side of SHIELD.  
"What is it?"  
"Well, with this article... you know that we've been keeping people away from you, and protecting them as well..."  
Bruce suddenly felt very frightened, his head ducked down.

"Yes... I'm sorry, I just..."  
"It isn't anything bad Bruce." Coulson reassured him, resting his hand on his shoulder. "I just feel I should let you know that... Well, we've respected your desire to keep your life now separate from your relationship with your adoptive parents."

Bruce felt the room spinning, and Coulson's arm on his shoulder steadied him.  
"But we gave them a number they could call, if there was an emergency. We've fielded a few calls from them after your missions, when you or Hulk has been reported injured..."

Bruce still felt dizzy. He hadn't thought of it, had been so focused on the idea that his parents were better off without him that it hadn't occurred to him they might want to be in contact.  
"Oh?" He asked, trying to confront the thoughts that were filling his head.  
"And today, they called asking us to pass on their congratulations for the article. They've been following your progress closely. I have done that now, but..." He handed over a piece of paper. "They also left a telephone contact number."

Bruce's fingers seized the paper, and he opened it, examining the number, before calling it.   
"Hello?" The voice that spoke was that of his mother. The woman who had supported him, helped him pack for university, and taken him out for a meal after his first paper had been published. She was talking to him, and right now, he had a chance to talk to her once more.

Coulson squeezed his shoulder and walked away, leaving Bruce to speak to his parents in private, heading back to the living room to keep the rest of the team out of the way.

Bruce stood there alone, as the voice at the other end of the line called out to him again.  
“Hello?”  
Bruce licked his lips, voice trembling slightly.  
"Hello mom."


End file.
